Loving it - glad I didn't get the iPod

Author's Rating:

Pros: Lotsa Memory, Great Sound Quality, Long Battery Life.

Cons: Needed an aftermarket case, included one was sub-par. Random button inconvenient.

The Bottom Line: 
Like it for storage capability at a reasonable price. Love it for long battery life.

Author's Review
As many people have pointed out, there are a plenty of MP3 players out there that will give you more storage and sound quality for your $$ than an iPod. This is one of them: use your money wisely!

I originally thought about the iPod, mostly because everyone I knew had them. Then I realized the price difference between them and other MP3 players, and decided to do a little more research. Glad I didn't go with my first impulse!

I've had my Creative Labs Zen Touch for two months now, and have no regrets with the purchase. I first purchased the CL Jukebox Zen Xtra 40 GB, but returned it for the Zen Touch. So some of my review may make comparisons between the two. The short version of why I changed to this one: I didn't like the scroll wheel on the Zen Xtra, and also didn't like that I would never be able to listen to FM on it (the Touch has a remote control accessory that has an added FM function on it). Also, on the shallow side of the pool: the Jukebox Zen Xtra was a little too clunky for my taste; the Zen Touch is a bit sleeker in its design (felt lighter, and slightly thinner). I hope that’s helpful for those trying to decide between them. I should also note that I'm not really a techie, so my understanding & explanations of some features may be a little too dunder-headed for some people. Though I did try to perform research before buying- I researched product information here, and several other sites (not sure if I'm allowed to mention other opinion sites?). I was leaning towards either a Creative Labs or an iRiver, since both had good reputations for sound quality. I started to lean more towards Creative Labs just out of personal preference - I just liked the look and set-up of CL players better.

Appearance-wise, this is a nice little machine. The buttons and touch-pad are easy to use and well placed (with the exception of the dreaded Random button, discussed further down), the player has a nice solid feeling in my hand (doesn't feel like it will snap, like other players), all while still being conveniently sized. I've accidentally dropped it off my desk a couple times (arg!), and it still plays with no problem. Not that I'll be testing the hard drive by dropping it on purpose or going jogging with it anytime soon.

Two of the BIG pluses, for me, were the Zen Touch's memory size and battery life. The 40 GB memory rocks, I think CL gives you a great deal on memory size vs. dollars spent. The battery life has also been excellent, I haven't had to charge it nearly as often as I thought I would. The company estimate on battery life is listed as 24 hours on the package but mine has lasted a little longer on my trials - about 25-26 hours. Though, outside the trials, I usually play at 2-3 hour intervals. Not sure if that makes a difference. As long as I follow the standard guidelines for a lithium battery, I'm hoping to keep the battery life at that level for a while, without a lot of degradation. FYI, batteryuniversity.com has some great guidelines to follow with lithium batteries.

As for the player itself, the sound quality has been great. I’ve picked out things on some of my music that I had never heard on my old flash-drive MP3 player. I got even better sound when I upgraded the headphones. I do miss, a little, the quality of the equalizer function on the Jukebox Zen Xtra had, I'm not sure why they didn't include it in the newer Zen Touch. I don't know what else to add about sound- "its great," pretty much sums it up for me.

Regarding the players use/function, I've found it easy to use and adapt to. The menus are similar to logic/order of the Jukebox Zen Xtra's menus, so I was familiar with them by the time I got the Touch. The touch pad (an upgrade from the Jukebox Zen Xtra's scroll wheel, which I found a little troublesome) is easy to use. I did play with the sensitivity level for the touch pad a little before finding one that worked best for me. A recent firmware upgrade has also fixed the sensitivity issue for older gens of the Touch, so the settings a less sensitive. All the newer ones have the improved sensitivity. As a note: "Yes!, you CAN change the level of sensitivity," for those who are worrying about complaints that it is too sensitive. Mine was set by default at the highest sensitivity when I first got it out of the box, which was a little disconcerting (at the time, I thought "Oh no! They were right, this is WAY too sensitive!!!!"). I quickly changed it by searching through the menu. I also found that rolling my finger along the touch pad worked best for 1-2 line scrolling (rather than sliding my finger, which made me fly past the 1-2 lines I might have wanted). Menus are pretty logical and intuitive; you don't have to drill down too many levels to get to what you want. I also love the dedicated volume buttons (some other players I looked at only had volume accessible via the internal menu, rather than a button), as well as a dedicated "go back" button, which takes you to your previous menu level (rather than having to use the touch pad to scroll through the menu to the back option).

My biggest complaint is sort of a combined one- the result of the Random button, and the case that is provided with the player. The one dedicated button I'm not happy about is the Random button. If you're researching the Zen Touch, you've probably heard about it. I guess they put the button on the player to mimic the shuffle button capabilities that iPods deliver. It is in an inconvenient spot, and hitting it causes your ENTIRE collection to be selected to play in a Shuffle mode. Which I have no need for. Honestly, I cannot think of a single reason why I would want my *entire* collection to play in Random mode. If I did want to shuffle music, I'd still want to be able to pick and choose which ones are in the "shuffle collection" (which, incidentally, you can also do, via the menu - its just the Random button that takes everything, throws it into a single giant playlist, and sets itself in shuffle mode). I certainly don't want ALL of my collection in Random. I instead go to the playlists I want, select them, and then set the play mode to shuffle or shuffle once. As the second part of the complaint, the included case for the product doesn't help much. Putting the Touch in its case and removing it are both almost 100% guaranteed to hit Random if you haven't remembered to lock the buttons. Also, the standard case completely covers the face of the player, rendering it useless if you like to use the touch pad or any of the buttons after you've started playing (basically all the time for me- how many times do you decide to skip songs on your playlist? I know I do all the time. Sometimes I just change my mind once a playlist starts). Your only choice is to set your music, Lock the buttons, place in case, and then (if you decide you later want to skip a song or change your selection) remove from case, unlock the buttons, complete your function, and lock again and then replace into the case. It's just a little inconvenient.

I didn't take off too many points for the Case and Random complaints I listed, since I eliminated them both when I bought an aftermarket case. Though I did take off a little, since it's something I feel I should not have had to do.

I've since replaced the included case with an aftermarket one- makes it harder to hit the Random button, AND it allows me to use the buttons and touchpad while still in the case (which the included one DOES NOT, as noted above). The case I bought covers almost the entire player, with openings for the touch pad and for the earphone jack. In the spots where buttons and the screen are on the player, it has a clear, thin plastic layer. The rest is a nice cushiony neoprene, which limits scratching. With the clear plastic covering the buttons, you can still push on a button to use it, while the thin covering layer helps avoid the accidental bumps that Random seems to live for. I haven't hit the Random button once since I got the new case (about three weeks ago), even though I usually carry it in my pocket all the time without the buttons locked. Works great for me, just thought I'd mention to look for a case like that if you're trying to minimize the Random button issue.

I've found the included Creative Labs MediaSource software to be easy to use, and the USB 2.0 made for quick loading onto the Touch. I haven't bothered to look for other software to rip/transfer music, since I've been happy with this one. Also, I noticed a previous review complained that the Zen Touch wasn't formatted to be compatible with Napster To Go. A recent release of a firmware upgrade from Creative Labs includes PlaysForSure, so now you can use NapsterToGo with your Zen Touch player, not just Napster. There still seems to be some occasional syncing problems listed by users in the Creative Labs forums - though my understanding is that this happens with other players, too (I've only heard this from friends, not field experts). As an aside: when ripping/loading music onto your player, be sure that you input ALL the category information (album, artist, song title, genre) for the music you're uploading to the player. It will make it MUCH easier to sort through your collection once on the player.

Depending on your preference, one con by comparison to the Zen Xtra is the internal battery. By comparison, the CL Jukebox Zen Xtra had a battery that could be removed for replacement once the battery stopped performing at optimal levels. Though its battery was good for only an estimated 14 or 16 hours, I believe. So I lost the change-out ability, but got longer battery charge. I guess time will tell if that was the right choice. Though the internal battery seems pretty typical of the marketplace right now. The replaceable one in the Zen Xtra seems the exception rather than the rule, at least on the models I was comparing before I purchased.

Well, I hope some of this helps.